Once upon a time
by TractorAngelforPresident
Summary: "I know you, Natalia." "No, you don't, James." "I knew you once." "I'm not Natalia anymore." "Nor I'm James."


**Disclaimer: I do not own the characters portrayed in this work of fiction.**

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><p>Fucking Hydra. Natasha thinks as she scrubs angrily a plate somewhere in a cabin in the forests of South Canada. She's letting everything simmer down for a while, which means that she's laying low and that it's going to be a while before she'd see any action.<p>

Or a lot sooner than I expected, she thinks as she hears the floor cracking.

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't shoot you now."

"It'd upset Steve." That actually stilled her hands on the shiny plate. She could recognize that voice anywhere, it was the same one that she didn't expected to hear again. Wishful thinking, really.

"Don't you dare to use him as a excuse when you don't even know him." She then turns around and throws the rag to kitchen counter and stares at the man than not two months ago would have killed her without a second thought. It was the same man that ten years ago cradled her in his arms the nights when her demons wouldn't shut up.

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><p>I knew him once. Bucky thinks, but instead he says. "I could have kill you earlier, yet you're still breathing." The woman before him is a mystery in a way that she's not. Once upon a time he pulled her apart and put her back together.<p>

"Not the smartest move." She deadpanned, and he hates how perfect her poker face is. The eyes of the redhead that he remembered gave everything away.

"I was trying to be polite. You know, don't kill the host in their own kitchen."

"Good to know that you're not too broken for sarcasm yet." He hates the fact that she has the same sense of humor, it's making him confuse the past with the present. He hates the familiarity. "What do you want?" He looks at her again and knows that depending of his answer she'd shoot him in the leg or in the heart. She going to shoot me anyway.

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><p>"I want some answers."<p>

"Why would you think I have them?" Or that I'd told you anything, she thinks.

"I dreamt of you once." Bucky says with a faraway look.

"Lucky me. Was it fun?" Natasha uses sarcasm to hide the tingle of fear that she feels. He can't remember it.

"It was cold." Fuck, she thinks. "I know you, Natalia." The spy drops her nonchalant façade, and stares at him intently. She's not used to that name and she flinches involuntarily, even in the Red Room she was just an alias, sometimes just number, but when she was with him she could be just Natalia.

"No, you don't, James." The man smiles sadly, and she looks again. He's wearing jeans and a hoody that had seen better days and a stubble of three days.

"I knew you once." His tone is so earnest that her eyes soften.

"I'm not Natalia anymore."

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><p>"Nor I'm James." Natasha's eyes harden again and Bucky knows she's a comment away from grabbing her gun, so finally he decides to show his carts. "I just want to know who is Bucky."<p>

"I didn't know Bucky, I just met James."

"Who was James?"

"A soldier of the Red Room." She says in a emotionless tone, and he must have done something right, because then the redhead turns around and rummages through the cupboards. They stay a few minutes in silence and he breaks it again when Natasha passes him a cup of coffee.

"And who was Natalia?" She stills her hand on his mug and for a moment their hands touch, but too soon the spell is broken and the redhead is heading towards the living room. He follows her and the both of them sank down in the coach.

"She was one of the twenty eight Black Widow agents of the Red Room." With that she tells him all she can remember about the red room.

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><p>"So you ratted me out to Steve." Bucky says not overly concerned sipping his second cup of coffee.<p>

"That's what you're focusing on? Really?" Natasha replied rolling her eyes.

"What? It's true."

"I don't owe you anything." All the playfulness abandoned her, and Bucky sobered up.

"Yet you didn't tell Fury about us."

"There's no us."

"There was once." The fire is making her hair shine, just like her eyes. And he wills himself to not to reach her out. "What were we? Allies? Friends? "The man hesitated a bit before adding. "Lovers?"

"Love is for children." Natasha replied instantly, it was like an automatic response.

"How would you know? You never got be one." Natasha looks sharply at him, but then she relaxes her instances.

"Well, it's not like you know any better."

"I knew once."

"But you don't remember." There is a pause where the two of them stares intently at each other.

"I remember teaching you something." Bucky says, his voice oddly fragile.

"You taught me almost everything I know about fighting." She replied knowing that he didn't meant that.

"I also taught you that love is not always enough." He practically whispers.

"I already knew that." Nat says with a devil may care tone. She's looking at the fire, already remembering the last time she saw her mother, and then a hand is clutching hers and she's no longer hearing his mother telling her to run, just her quick breathing. The smell of smoke is replaced for sweat, forest and something that just was Bucky.

Then there were arms around her, clutching her like time hasn't passed. They cuddle long enough to make Natasha no longer afraid or resigned about tomorrow, for the first time in a long time, she's excited about it, knowing that Bucky will still be there. Steve is going to kill, it's the last thing she thinks before she felt asleep with her head on Bucky's shoulder.

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><p><strong>AN: First of all, English is not my mother language, so I'm sorry for any possible mistakes. I apologize if the characters seems to be too OOC.**

**Let me know what you think ;)**


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